[FBIS Translated Text] [words indistinct] For a
single reason: to look for arguments. [words indistinct]
persuade the persons, those who have doubts, in view of the
political importance the matter has. I would say that there
is the impression that many (?new) compatriots believe that
the day after the law is approved we are going to have many
capitalists of Cuban descent in Havana and throughout the
Republic, making investments [words indistinct] and there
are no possibilities. Many years may pass before that
problem could arise. It is possible that it may never
happen.

We will handle all this opening and development
process in accordance with the things the country needs, the
things the country is interested in.

In practice, this law could be passed and nothing
would happen because, as Lage said, there is a ban on
investments here. They cannot invest here.

However, I know North Americans and Cubans who rack
their brains thinking of ways to invest. They are not that
many, just a few of them, but they can't. Investing is
prohibited for them. Thus, it makes no sense to discuss
this, this aspect of the law, from an economic point of
view. It has more of a political sense. The day when the
blockade disappears, and no one knows today or can say for
sure when the blockade will disappear...[pauses] because
the situation within the United States is uncertain. Who
will rule that country within 15 months or more? Will it
be the extreme right? Will there be something to stop such a
trend? This is what we are discussing now, and it will be
a valid discussion when the blockade is lifted.

What would we be doing now from the political
standpoint? What Robertico [Robaina] said: we would be
sending the wrong message. We would be sending a totally
inexpedient message [mensaje impolitico] because in our
zeal to prevent those people, certain people, from
investing, we would be banning the others -- those who are
not the same, those who have a different attitude or stand
toward Cuba -- in advance, from investing in Cuba some day.
We would be practically removing every hope they have to
invest in Cuba.

What would we be doing? We would be adding all those
people to those who back the Helms policy that Cuba has to
pay at least $100 billion to compensate the properties that
were nationalized. One of the most monstrous aspects of
that bill is that it intends to include even those who had
property in Cuba and left the country.

Consequently, all those Cubans -- even those who left
through Mariel, perhaps set up a small store and did well,
gathered a little bit of money [chuckles] and have nothing
to do with all those others -- would never have the hope to
invest money. It is not even a matter of hope, but of the
fact that our law would become discriminatory.

Many of our friends, Canadians, North Americans,
Europeans, all of those who, in one way or another, are
interested in investing in Cuba, would not understand why we
would exclude, just for the sake of excluding, the Cubans
from this law. They would see it as something strange. They
would see it as a very inexpedient action. They would see
it as the strengthening of the positions of the most
recalcitrant and reactionary individuals, the worst enemies
of the revolution, those who have not the most remotest
intention of investing in Cuba. On the contrary, they would
do everything, and are doing everything possible, so that
no one invests in Cuba, not even the Spaniards, the French,
or the Italians.

When there is talk of investment in Cuba, they send
many letters with threats that, when the revolution is over,
they are going to seize everything that was invested,
everything they spent in Cuba. They tell investors that
they will lose everything. Those people engage in doing
just the opposite of what we are doing. Thus, we must not
give those people the opportunity, and there are a lot, a
big bunch. I would not dare say that they are a majority,
because there is a silent majority. Things keep changing,
many things keep changing among the emigrants.

However, those who have a positive attitude would
become irritated. They would say: we are irritated because
we are Cubans. They would say: we are excluded because we
are Cubans. It would be a terrible blow to all that policy
Robertico mentioned. It is a policy of broadmindedness and
work with the emigrants.

We would not be the first ones, because the Vietnamese
also had a large emigration. They devoted their time to
working with the emigration and giving them advice. They
devoted a great amount of time and energy and the work was
fruitful. [25-second passage indistinct] The biggest share
of the emigration from Cuba to the United States was for
economic reasons, just like the Mexican, Puerto Rican,
Dominican, Colombian, and other countries' emigration.

One must not be mistaken; most of them used excuses to
receive the advantages of being an enemy of socialism, the
revolution, and all those things. But the biggest share of
the migration was for economic reasons.

The truth is that we have paid little attention to
this problem. Some efforts were made a few years ago. These
are not the first efforts made in this direction. Now, we
have a more coherent and strategic policy than in the past.
But this policy would receive a tremendous blow. It would
mean endless discussions with every Cuban who came here and
asked: why are you excluding us? It would involve
feelings of frustration and irritation. The emigrants have
been holding discussions and asking for things: That they
be allowed to travel, that the paperwork not be so
complicated when they are to travel, and things like that.

However, I am certain that this deliberate exclusion,
this exclusion written there in black and white, would be
very much exploited by our enemies, not only with the
Cubans but with those who are not Cubans. Well, they would
say: are you idiots, fools, dumb, why are you doing that?
Where would that lead you?

Besides, on the day they could invest, it would be
very difficult to prevent -- one way or another -- anyone
investing. In practice, we cannot prevent direct investment
or negotiations with anyone. We will hold negotiations with
anyone we consider worthy of negotiations. We will hold
these negotiations; after all, we are the ones who are
handling this; they are not the ones who decide this. Cuba
makes the decision. Our country will have to do what it
deems advisable in each case. It is in our hands to prevent
the participation of any of these people who are not worthy
of any type of association with the Cuban state.

Now, there are ways of evading this. Many of these
companies who do business with us have shares in the stock
market. They can go to the stock market, purchase shares,
and divide these shares. If they are careless ... [pauses]
Well, we always have certain requirements, some type of
business, some things, right? However, in general, they
could make up, let us say, these front companies as they
are called in order to make investments.

Gentlemen: Let us not be dreamers. That is not going
to happen that way. Nobody should believe that the
investments will pour into this country. Investments never
pour in anywhere. One thing I do believe is that without
the blockade the investments that we need at this time
would have been made. Still, let no one dream of a shower of
investments. In addition, it is clear that on the one hand
there is [words indistinct], the struggle against
corruption; nobody is asking anyone for money to make
business. I am referring to the comrades who have important
responsibilities and who work in this field.

Everything is very well defined in the law. This
country is certainly not going to become anyone's property.
This law is not going to make that feasible. That is why
this deals with an issue that is political, not economic.
The treatment we must give is a political treatment. That
is correct. The other aspect is very apolitical. I mean it.
I share the feelings of the vast majority of those present
here, that is, any feelings of sorrow, sadness. [words
indistinct] And if we return to the idea that much of the
emigration that took place was for an economic reason --
although it was politicized by the United States -- it
should not be a reason for us to be swept away by strong
sentiment and to establish the exclusion that -- I repeat -
- is going to be criticized by the entire world, not only
the... [pauses] and everything for the sake that they not
invest here what they are never going to invest ever. Why
should we give them that gift? Why give Helms and company
this gift now in Congress? They would then say: Look, no
wonder we are demanding this and the other.

Cubans who live in the United States are excluded from
this. That is right, they are being discriminated against,
merely because they live in the United States. There are
others who live in other countries, and not the United
States; there are some who live in Venezuela and Mexico, as
Leal explained. They have had relations, some of them had
them from some time ago, and some of them make donations and
provide help. Some of them come here, some of them come in
with the brigades that come here to work every year in the
field of agriculture. We welcome investment from there, and
we never even ask who their fathers were.

If one day the son of a henchman [esbirro] arrives
with a new conscience and wants to work in one these
brigades, he can be sure that no one will forbid him to
come and work in that brigade provided he has a patriotic
conscience and repudiates what his parents or all those
people may have done. There are many people who are sons or
grandchildren of Cubans.

There is also the other matter, gentlemen, which is
clear, and Argentino [not further identified] reminded us of
it: the famous depenalization and money remittances to
Cuba. I believe that politically speaking this was more
delicate and harder to understand -- that many people who
have relatives abroad can receive things that others cannot.
That was a much tougher political step, but was
explainable. Nevertheless it was more useful, because one
way or the other hundreds of millions are remitted. How do
they do it? Not even we know. And even if we knew, we would
be unable to tell, or should not tell. But it means an
income that the country cannot give up, which solves a
certain number of problems.

We cannot stop anyone from sending a remittance to a
relative here. There could even be the case of a remittance,
and some have even said this, to establish a small business
or small shop here. Those are other sorts of problems we
would have to face up to, and the people here do not really
have the money for those sorts of operations. But who can
tell where the money comes from? What sort of people send
it?

The most varied types of people send relatives money,
and they did this before it was depenalized, using foreign
tourists. Many of them traveled with all expenses paid to
bring money to relatives of people living in the United
States at a time when there was no depenalization or stores.

Already in Varadero and many other places in the
country there were dollar operations, and there were
peasants who had piggy banks in dollars, and other people
who sold other things. The dollar was in circulation even
before it was depenalized, because tips were paid in
dollars, or people received dollars through relatives. The
dollar was circulating, and all we did was legalize
something that was already taking place.

The best proof that we were right are today's efforts
by the U.S. Government to prevent money from being
remitted, to limit remittances, stop people from coming
here. It is them who place obstacles, and the greatest
pressure for these things to happen is exerted by these
extreme right-wing elements through their influence, their
money, and their lobby. Everything we do is being fought by
this extreme right and is being fought by the most
reactionary U.S. politicians.

Helms' law is the negation of everything we are doing,
because they understand we have had results. The proof is
that the revolution has not collapsed and the peoples'
confidence is much stronger. It is very clear; the latest
elections showed this in an obvious and unquestionable
manner through the peoples' attitude and behavior.

Despite all these things and all those privileges --
because privileges hurt very much here, and this happens
every day -- the people understood that it was necessary to
support and suffer this, because for each and every one of
those privileges there were a host of unseen things, which
the people receive as part of what is remitted through our
system of foreign currency-collecting shops and services.
This has benefited the people a great deal, as is known. We
could never list all the benefits to the people, the
benefits the people receive from this income. But we had to
do it; it hurt us. You can be sure that it hurt me and all
of us much more compared to the hypothetical right,
whenever the blockade ends, for some person to propose a
business deal.

It is for this reason that I personally believe that
the most intelligent, practical, and wise thing would be
... [pauses] I would say this same thing to those
companeros who have made these recommendations with an
honest awareness of patriotism. This is something which we
feel glad about because anytime we are told that there are
individuals who do not understand this issue, we in turn
answer back that there are lots of patriotic and
revolutionary people who are bothered by these things.
Anyone would be resentful of it! Anything that represents
privileges or touches our feelings tends to hurt us all
without exception. It for this reason that we agree with
what Susana, Agustin, and the rest of the companeros here
have proposed. All those things bother us.

However, it is also pleasing to witness that the rest
of the world is now starting to acknowledge that the
revolution will not crumble and that the country is starting
to move ahead. Some are even beginning to speak with
amazement of the things that are taking place in Cuba at a
time when the terrible crisis of neo-liberalism -- the most
favored doctrine of imperialism --is now beginning to cause
disasters throughout Latin America.

Everyone is watching developments in Cuba. We have our
school term beginning normally, expressions of revolutionary
fortitude, the past elections, the 5 August marches, or the
mobilizations to the rural area. In addition we have had
the efforts the population has been undergoing during the
months of June and July, the hottest months of the year.

This recognition is a reward for all of the things we
have had to withstand in doing the things we are currently
doing after all the plans we had to suspend, sacrifices
prompted by the special period, so many things we had to
forgo. We are now beginning to receive our reward. The
population understands this, feels more motivated, and their
attitude is beginning to change. The population can be
compared to a boxer who receives a tremendous punch, one of
those punches intended to knock down an opponent, and can
only rely on himself to recover from the effects of the
blow.

So it was with us. We had to recover from the
ideological confusion that came from outside during those
days when it was being said that socialism was going to be
perfected. We also had to recover from the disastrous
results those events brought to our economy. It was a
terrible blow! However, our people have been able to
recover from such a punch as they are now beginning to
react to everything that is taking place. Therefore,
adversity also has a positive side, just like the difficult
side of this situation also has its positive side.

It is teaching us to seek efficiency at a very rapid
pace, as well as to do a lot of thing that we never did
before. It is also forcing us to solve a lot of problems
which we never solved before when we had sufficient
resources to do it. If I can mention an example, I just
have to recall what took place last Friday, the day when
the school term began, and the tremendous sensation we felt
on that day, all the details, the impressive number of
students, the impressive number of teachers. Even the
uniforms were not simply a matter of a piece of cloth. It
was impressive because generation to generation, household
to household, neighbor to neighbor, decided to distribute
the used uniforms they had tucked away in their cabinets.
We were all able to see the kids ... [applause]

We all feel more content because we are witnessing
the revolution consolidate itself. I explain this simply to
recall that adversity also brings its rewards. [applause]

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